Ye Gui Li Declassified
by Chuckling-Ghost
Summary: AU where the Fire Nation has a force equivalent to the Dai Li in the game. Fire Nation Toph with lava-bending, numerous OC's, told from Fire Nation POV. Red Lotus will appear. High number of brutally blood thirsty and amoral characters, expect violence, language and insanity. Don't bet on the good guys in this one. DISCONTINUED
1. Chapter 1

=Chapter 1-Hei=

==A Few Days After Avatar Aang's Return==

Zuko and Iroh stepped off the prow ramp of the ship, Zuko irritable at the delay and Iroh appearing rather bored as Zuko barked quietly, "Uncle, I want the repairs made as quickly as possible. I don't want to stay too long and risk losing his trail." "You mean the Avatar?" Iroh replied blearily. Zuko whirled and swept his hand across his body in a horizontal arc, "Don't mention his name on these docks!" he hissed, "Once word gets out that he's alive every firebender will be out looking for him! I don't want anyone getting in the way."

"Getting in the way of what?" A smooth voice asked, prompting Zuko and Iroh to turn towards the black clad man and young woman walking towards them. The two bowed slightly and saluted as they reached the former crown prince. The man smiled as he straightened up, "It's been a long time old friend." Zuko's eyes suddenly widened as he recognized the man in the long black coat and light armor, "Hei?"

"Commodore now," Hei replied with a crooked smile, "Good to see you two again. Glad to see you haven't sunk. Although..." he continued as his eyes flicked up to their heavily battered ship, "I'd say you weren't far from it recently." "Yes!" Zuko said hurriedly, "You wouldn't believe what happened!" He paused for a moment, "Uncle! Tell Hei what happened!" Iroh froze wide-eyed at being put on the spot but recovered quickly, "Yes! It was incredible!" Then he hissed at Zuko out the corner of his mouth, "What? Did we crash or something?"

Suddenly the young woman sighed, "I don't even need my bending to tell you two are hiding something." Hei smiled, "As usual my friends, my trusted second in command is right. Seven years at sea has not given either of you any skill at lying. Perhaps you would join me for a drink away from possible eavesdroppers?" Zuko flinched slightly as his old friend called his bluff, "Yeah, I guess that could be nice."

==A Little While Later==

"And by year's end the Earth Kingdom will fall and the Fire Nation can finally claim victory in this war," Hei finished with a smile. "If my father thinks the rest of the world will follow him willingly, then he is a fool!" Zuko spat. Hei smiled slightly, "All that time at sea hasn't done anything to temper your tongue I see." He sat down, "So, how's your search for the Avatar going?"

A weapons rack Iroh was examining suddenly collapsed, causing the young woman Hei had introduced as his second in command to jump half out of her chair. She settled back into her seat as Iroh apologized bashfully. She glared at her cup breathing heavily, "Don't ever do that again," she snarled at Iroh. Iroh flinched slightly at the anger in her voice. Hei looked at her, "Calm down Toph, it was an accident." Then he turned to Iroh, "But really, don't do that again. Toph has extremely sensitive hearing. That was loud for us, it was like cannon fire for her. The sudden impact didn't help either."

Zuko frowned, "What impact?" Hei turned to him, "Toph here is an earth-bender, one of the finest in the world. You probably haven't noticed because it doesn't slow her down at all but she's blind." Iroh and Zuko stared and Toph frowned, "Stop staring at me." "She can't be blind!" Zuko exclaimed, "How did she know we were staring if she's blind?" Toph seemed to look at him, but he could see once she lifted her eyes that they were indeed sightless orbs, "I can see with my bending. When something touches the ground I can sense the impact, so a sudden heavy impact is like what Hei says a burst of bright light would be for you."

Hei smiled, "She can tell what's going on around her far better than most people with functioning eyes, and darkness doesn't hinder her at all. Another useful trick it lends her is the ability to tell when people are lying, so I'll ask again, how's the search for the Avatar? When we walked up on you it sounded to me like you had found him." Zuko and Iroh both flinched.

Zuko slumped slightly, he had never been able to hide anything from Hei, "We found him." "And your tone says he got away," Hei finished. "Yeah," Zuko replied glumly. He hit the arm of his chair, "We had him! Those damn peasants!" "Peasants?" Hei asked. Zuko nodded, "Southern Water Tribe, one of them was a water-bender. They showed up with some kind of giant white flying monster and helped him escape."

Hei frowned, "A waterbender from the Southern Tribe? I thought we had captured or killed all of those. Toph remind me to look into the records about the Southern Raiders' last hit on the Southern Tribe. Sounds like they haven't been doing their jobs." Zuko frowned, "I thought the Southern Raiders were an independent division?" Hei smiled, "They are, but since you obviously haven't heard yet old friend, I'm not with the Navy anymore."

Zuko frowned, "What? If you're not with the Navy then how are you giving orders at a naval base?" Hei's smile grew, "Toph and I are with Ye Gui Li External Affairs." Zuko and Iroh stared, "The Ye Gui Li? How?" Hei smiled, "You remember my mentor Admiral JeongJeong? Turns out he's the head of the Ye Gui Li's External Affairs. I was brought in under his tutelage and paired with Toph. We've been working together for five years now, but back to you, you're not on a wild goose chase anymore."

Zuko frowned, "What do you mean?" Hei smiled, "Now that the Avatar's back, all you have to do is catch him. Before that, you were stuck chasing somebody who nobody believed existed, except you. Now you have chance." "My father believed he was real," Zuko protested. Everyone else present flinched, and then Hei smiled gently, "Of course he did. My mistake." Zuko felt a slight sinking feeling in his gut, "He did, didn't he?"

Hei forced a smile, "Of course he did! We just all thought he was giving you an impossible errand to keep you busy. Just us assuming the worst of a bad situation. Overreaction on our part, nothing to worry about." "Except that you have to catch him before anyone else does," Toph added, "And word that the Avatar's returned probably won't take long to reach the Fire Lord." Hei nodded, "And once we receive our orders to capture him, the entire Ye Gui Li will be after him, in addition to the rest of the Fire Nation's military and probably every bounty hunter in the world."

Zuko gulped as the prospect of having to compete with Hei and even more, the infamous Ye Gui Li, blotted away the cloud of doubt about his mission that had threatened to overtake his mind, "You're right." "I can give you a head start," Hei said thoughtfully, "Until the order comes through to go after him, I'm under no obligation to hunt him." He smiled, "And since you're technically not affiliated with the military anymore, I can hire you on as bounty hunters and let you take the credit for capturing him." Zuko blinked, "You would, let me take the credit for capturing the Avatar?"

Hei laughed, "Weren't you listening earlier Zuko? We've got much bigger plans in the works than simply catching the Avatar. I can more than afford to let you have him." "Oh...right," Zuko replied numbly as he recalled what Hei had been talking about earlier. He hadn't been paying attention to most of it, but he remembered the last bit, "And by year's end the Earth Kingdom will fall."

==A Few Hours Later==

Hei and Toph stood on the cape waving farewell to the banished prince and his uncle as they sailed away. "He's really dumb isn't he?" Toph asked. "No Toph," Hei replied, "He just doesn't want to accept his father's actions. You couldn't see his face, so I guess the extent of what his father did to him was slightly lost on you." "He banished him right?" Toph replied as they turned and headed back down to the harbor.

"He didn't just banish him Toph," Hei said grimly, "Zuko's father burned half his face off, publicly humiliated him and _then_ banished him forever unless he could bring back the Avatar. Zuko was disowned and sent from the life of a prince to the life of a bounty hunter at best in the space of a few moments, with his only hope of getting his life back being the boy we thought was dead until today."

Toph made a face, something that Hei attributed to reflex since facial expressions were meaningless to her, "That's pretty bad. What did Zuko do?" "That's the thing Toph, Zuko was doing exactly what he should have been doing," Hei replied grimly, "Ozai was waiting for an excuse to get rid of him, and seized on the first trivial thing he could to banish him. Ozai's hated Zuko for years, for a reason Zuko doesn't know and wouldn't want to know even if he did."

Toph frowned, "What could make a parent hate their child so much?" Hei looked around to make sure there was nobody listening before answering, "Well popular theory is that Zuko reminded him of his late wife a little too much. There might be more to it than that though. I'll help you look into it when we get back to Central since that more is in the archives. If there is a more that is." Toph sighed, "You're not really going to make me wait that long are you? Who knows when we'll get back to Central?" Hei just smiled, "Ask me again when we're alone."


	2. Chapter 2: Orders

=Chapter 2-Orders=

==Two Weeks Later==

Hei looked through the telescope at the Earth Kingdom fortress, "How many defending it?" "A hundred and fifty at the most, less than a third our number," The Major replied, "but it's a platoon of the Earth Kingdom's most elite warriors and benders. And the fortification itself is a problem as well. As you can see, it's quite the impregnable fortress. It's blocking our advance towards Omashu since we can't risk leaving such a powerful fortification behind us."

Hei smiled coldly as he surveyed the thicket of massive earthen spikes around the base of the large square keep on the hill in the center of the pass and the tiny road weaving up through them. He collapsed the telescope and handed it back to the Major, "The identity of their commanding officer?" "Colonel Qiu Yu," The Major replied as he pointed to a sketch on the table, "He is a formidable bender and by all accounts one of the most stubborn men alive. He'll never surrender."

Hei looked closely at the picture and smiled, "I think you're exactly right. He won't surrender." He straightened up and looked at the Major, "Have your forces ready to attack at dawn. If there's anyone still alive in there, they won't be in any shape to deal with you." The Major blinked, "What? There's over a hundred men in there with enough supplies to last them years, why wouldn't there be anyone..."

The Major's voice trailed off as he caught the vicious glint in Hei's eye. A sense of foreboding settled over him and his whole body suddenly seemed heavy and slow with horror as his chest tightened and realization flooded his mind, "Oh. You're..." Hei smiled as he stepped to the door of the tent and looked over his shoulder at the Major, "Best not to mention it Major." He left, the canvas flap that served as a door fluttering closed behind him virtually without a sound.

The Major shivered slightly, whether from the cold of the mountain air or from shock and the twinges of fear still twitching through him in the wake of the man he had mistaken for a Navy officer, he couldn't tell.

==Outside==

Toph stood up from the log she had been sitting on, "Got a long night planned?" "Most likely," Hei replied. Toph smiled, "Then let's go."

==Thirty Minutes Later, The Outer Wall Of The Keep==

"How long do you think they'll keep hammering away at us?" the guard patrolling the wall asked his patrol buddy. He hadn't known his patrol buddy long, but being under siege for the last three months they had become good friends. Now as he turned, curious at his friends silence, he had enough time for a split second of panic before the shadowy figure's hand snapped out and crushed his windpipe.

The shadowy finger raised a finger to his lips and made a shushing motion with what seemed to the guard the most evil grin in the history of the world as his lungs began to burn for oxygen. As the shadowy figure turned and silently sprinted down the wall towards the south tower, the guard's vision began to grow dim at the edges as earth flowed up his body to keep him from collapsing and alerting the sentries to his death with the crash of his armored body on the stone rampart. By the time the guard's eyes closed, Hei was already midair, launched toward the south tower from the top of the wall by Toph.

Hei drew and threw a small knife in the space of an instant as he reached level with the tower. A split second later he had landed on the parapet and leapt across the narrow space at the top of the tower, catching one of the two guards manning the tower by the throat on his way past with an armored gauntlet and dragged him along as he caught the further guard with one arm and slit his throat in a movement so smooth and silent a snake would've been jealous.

Before the first guard, who had taken Hei's knife straight to the eye, could concentrate through the pain to reach for his horn to sound the alert, Hei's hands wrapped around his jaw and the back of his head. There was a quick jerking motion and the guard had just enough time to catch a glimpse of a beautiful young woman sitting on the parapet between him and the crescent moon as he felt something snap that wasn't supposed to go snap.

After that he slumped to the ground, very dead. Hei didn't let him slump loudly, instead he laid the man down very gently, so as not to give any warning to the other sentinels by way of a helmet or rattling piece of armor bouncing off the stone. That was a sound Hei knew would be sure echo all throughout the pass on such a still night.

Toph smiled from the parapet, "Not like you to miss," She teased quietly as Hei retrieved his blade from the body of the guard. "Who says I missed?" Hei replied quietly as he used the dead man's shirt to wipe the blood off the knife that had been buried in the guard's eye, "If I had killed him with that knife throw he would've fallen, and all that armor would've alerted his friends to our presence, as is, he barely had time to gasp in pain before I had him by the throat."

He lifted the fallen guard enough to undo the dead man's quiver before strapping it on himself and appropriating the man's bow, "Now if you're done with your witty banter, I'm gonna get on with killing the guys on this wall over here." Toph sighed, "All work and no play, typical, typical Hei." Hei shot a glare at her, "There will be time and plenty for celebrating when we're done. Don't get cocky."

Toph sighed and stood. Five years ago she might have been offended, now though she was used to Hei's sense of humor disappearing during a job. "All clear down below. Nobody beneath us moving, nobody I can find at all except for those guys down in the barracks. Hang on." She stamped her foot and smiled, "correction, those ''pancakes'' down in the barracks."

==Twenty Short, Violent Minutes Later==

Hei drew the bow he had taken to full draw and released. A few seconds later the arrow thudded into the wall above the terrace roof of the fourth floor. Hei tied the rope to a post and then tied a second rope around his waist and the other end to the rope spanning the gap. He then tied Toph on the same way and the two clambered across the line, upside down hand over hand like monkeys.

Hei went first, Toph following closely behind and a few hair raising moments later, the two deadly assassins cut their safety lines from the safety of the roof right outside the window of the highest story of the central tower, the narrow one room lookout loft. The window was shuttered with thick canvas and crisscrossed with ornate wooden bars. Toph laid hand to the wall as Hei caught the bars and a few seconds later sand came trickling out from around the window as she gently drummed her fingers on the wall. Hei gently pulled the heavy window sideways in its frame, not much, just enough for them to slip through the gap.

A few moments later the sand hardened back to stone. Barring close inspection, nobody would ever be able to tell where the two deadly Ye Gui Li agents had entered the tower. Hei slithered to the door, Toph right on his heels. Hei looked at Toph and she gave a slight thumbs up, indicating the hallway on the opposite side of the door was empty. Hei poked his head out cautiously and tiptoed forward, scratching his fingers on the ground when it was clear.

Toph crept along behind him and they slithered along the hallway, quiet as the ghosts for which they were named. They reached the stairs and Toph passed Hei, flattening the spiraling stairs into a slide, which she effortlessly and silently slid up. A few moments later she slid back down, any sentinels which might have been on the roof silenced, and together she and Hei slid down to the third floor without a sound.

They stopped and Toph punched Hei on the shoulder gently as she slunk off down the hall towards the officers' quarters. Hei slid on down to the second floor and slithered down the hall, casually drawing two long knives from beneath his coat as he crept to the barracks. He poked his head around the edge of the door frame, and when he saw nobody moving, he grinned as he slid his knives back into their sheathes. He stood back and settled into a stance, calmly gathering his chi as his eyes hardened and he channeled his determination into a hard hateful point of power in his core.

When he heard a series of concerted crashes from the next floor up, as the sleeping guards leapt from their bunks, he stepped forward and unleashed a tremendous fire blast that flooded the room. In the space of an instant, the stone room was full of flames so hot that even six feet from the door through his thick black mask, with the fire contained and focused by his bending Hei had to squint to keep the heat from searing his eyes from his skull.

Once the room was full of flames, Hei began to make wide circular motions with his hands, whipping the inferno into a cyclone of fire. When the brief screaming brought the guards from the floor below rushing up the steps, Hei stepped back and brought the flames rushing out of the barracks and sent it hurtling down the stairs to the floor below like a waterfall of burning death. The last guard standing on the second floor crept around the corner, thinking perhaps if he could surprise the firebender that had just undoubtedly executed at least half of his comrades, perhaps he could avenge them.

Then Hei turned and separated his hands, two fingers pointed straight at the unlucky guardsman. A wall of dry heat suddenly washed over the man, scorching his flesh to parchment in seconds as Hei channeled the heat from the cherry red stone in the stairs down the hallway. When he was certain nobody else was coming, he stamped his foot twice. A second later, Toph dropped from a hole in the ceiling.

"Anyone still have a pulse besides us?" Hei asked as Toph rose from her crouch. "Nope," she replied, "there weren't any walls down below, and feels like all the stone down there is still partially molten from that fire blast. I can't feel anybody dancing around trying to get their feet out of the hot molten rock, so I'd say there's probably nobody left down there."

Hei nodded and then stepped to a window before turning to look at Toph, "They seem to have gotten the memo to get outside before I fire-washed the lower floor. Ready for a little workout?" Toph walked over to the window, "How many down there?" Hei looked, "Mmm...twenty, twenty five maybe." Toph smiled and leaned against the wall, "Nah. Not enough down there for a workout. They're all yours." Hei sighed with a slight smile as he drew his long knives from their sheathes beneath his coat, "Well, if you insist."

==The Next Morning==

The Major cautiously led his men up the slope which had been mysteriously cleared of earthen spikes over night. He found the gates wide open, and as he cautiously entered the courtyard, he saw signs of a major battle, and many bodies, but there was no sign of the Ye Gui Li agents other than the carnage they had left.

The Major led his men up through the tower, finding one room scorched charcoal black and full of horrifically scorched bodies and burned beds. Those of the fort's officers who had been sleeping were found with their heads crushed beneath large blocks of stone that seemed to have fallen from the ceiling, and as they scoured the outer ring of the fortress, they found nearly forty men in the tower barracks who had been mysteriously crushed like bugs along with their beds and everything else that had been in the rooms with them, almost as though a giant foot had slammed down upon the contents of the rooms the men had been in.

Hei and Toph were already long gone.

==Back At Hei's Ship, The Next Day==

Hei stood on deck, reading the dispatch that had arrived for him by messenger hawk while he was upriver dealing with the fortress. He smiled and looked up at the sky on the horizon, noting the dark clouds gathering as the scent and still of coming rain made his heart soar, "We've got a new mission Toph." Toph raised an eyebrow, "No way, really? A messenger hawk from Central arrived with a mission? They ''never'' do that."

Hei considered casting a withering glare at her, but he knew it would be totally lost on her, so instead he elected to ignore her sarcasm, "We've been assigned to hunt down the Avatar." Toph grinned, "Looks like we'll be seeing that Zuko guy again soon. Wasn't much of a head start was it?" Hei sighed, "Yes we will. No it wasn't, and we'll be seeing some other old friends first. We're not taking any chances with this. Much as I hate to say it, we're going to need the others."

Toph actually flinched, "Oh please tell me you don't mean..." Hei sighed with resignation, "Yeah. This is going to be a long hunt." Toph groaned at the prospect of having to work with the other Ye Gui Li's other three test cases, and Hei groaned internally as he resigned himself to having to work with his longstanding rival. Toph rubbed her forehead, "Maybe Baozha's killed him already and he won't be there..." "You know we're not that lucky," Hei replied glumly "If he were going to do it, he'd have done it by now."

Toph's face fell as she realized he was right, "Oh goody..."


	3. Chapter 3: Old Friends

**AN:** _Lemon at end of chapter. Not for those under 18 or legal age of consent in their region, blahblahblah yakety-yak and legal bullshit galore. Read it if you want, if you don't then I've got a heads up at the start of that section. Seriously, this is the internet, ignorance can only last so long here. While I'm covering my ass (more or less), I do not own Avatar The Last Airbender or the Legend of Korra, or any characters introduced in those shows. I wish I did, there are many things I wish to change, but that is after all what fanfiction is for is it not?_

 **=Chapter 3-Old Friends=**

 **==A Week Later==**

Hei sat on the rock his ship was anchored to, watching the horizon as the clouds drifted along overhead. Toph was busy expanding the rock they had moored to. It had originally been nothing more than the outermost ridge of a clump of reefs, but with some help from Hei and a rowboat Toph had managed to raise the reef to above the surface of the water. Now she was busily expanding the rocky surface so that more of the crew could come ashore. Hei smiled as he cast a glance in her direction, there was of course another reason she was working to expand the rock platform.

It was the same reason he had chosen to meet with his comrades in such a remote location. The Ye Gui Li's activities had expanded to a global scale since the start of the war, now there was talk of moving Central Command to a location more central to the rest of the world so that it would actually be a ''Central'' Command again. Hei knew the Archives wouldn't move and the heart of the Fire Nation would always be where the head of the dragon that was the Ye Gui Li lay, but he also knew that whoever found a good location for the new Central Command would be in very good standing with the admiralty. What could be better he thought, than an island that wasn't on any chart or map?

Even if the admiralty didn't want to use the new location for Central, it would still be a valuable new Naval Outpost. Toph was a master earth-bender even though she had never had a formal earth-bending teacher. Hei knew she would succeed in turning the treacherous reefs into an island. Already Toph had raised a few hundred square meters of stone to the surface along with two piers jutting outwards.

Then a smile broke across his face as he turned back to the horizon and saw a ship chugging towards them.

 **==Twenty Minutes Later==**

Hei saluted Zuko and Iroh as they stepped down onto the stone pier, "Welcome to our rendezvous point your highnesses. We're waiting for our associates, but you're more than welcome to make yourselves comfortable in the meantime." Zuko looked at the barren slab of stone, "What is this place? The map showed it as just a reef." Hei grinned crookedly, "Hopefully it's the Ye Gui Li's new Central Command. High Admiral JeongJeong is coming to see it next week, so I hope you'll forgive me if I'm a little distracted."

Iroh smiled, "JeongJeong is coming here? Gooood! It's been too long since I saw him last!" Zuko looked at him, "You know him Uncle?" Iroh nodded, "Of course, High Admiral JeongJeong is an old friend. Always has an interesting view on things." Zuko blinked, "Ok," and turned back to Hei, "But Hei, how is this tiny little rock going to be a command center?" Zuko was suddenly tossed off the pier as the ground jumped beneath him.

Zuko surfaced spitting and sputtering, but before he could protest, "Tiny little rock?!" Toph exclaimed angrily as she pointed at the large expanse of stone behind her, "I've been working on this for hours! When we got here every bit of this was completely submerged!" Despite being blind, she was still managing to glare right at him, which Zuko found utterly baffling. "Sorry," Zuko replied quickly, "I didn't know!"

Toph snorted indignantly and made no move to help the former prince out of the water, but she made no move to hinder him either, so Hei knew she had accepted his apology.

 **==Two Hours Later==**

By the time the next ship arrived, the rocky platform had doubled in size. Two beautiful young women made their way down the gang plank after the ship moored alongside one of the earthen piers. Both were quite lovely, although one was immensely tall with her hair pulled back into a tight braid showing off a bizarre third eye tattoo in the center of her forehead, and Zuko found something about the other one reminded him eerily of his sister. Then he saw two tendrils of water snake out of the long sleeves of the young woman's robe as she waved to Toph.

Hei greeted the taller of the two while Toph and Ming Hua exchanged happy greetings, "P'Li, it's good to see you again." The tall woman smiled, "Good to see you too Hei. I see you've been keeping Toph busy." Hei smiled, "I'd help her if I could, but I'm no earth-bender. I was hoping Ghazan could help." He looked past P'Li, "He is here isn't he?"

P'Li shook her head, "No, he and Zaheer were held up. Their note said they'd be along tomorrow or the next day." P'Li noticed the Hei's eye twitching as he tried to restrain himself. She smiled as he tried to contain his frustration.

She patted him on the shoulder, "Don't worry Hei, it'll be alright. They're just not good with deadlines." Hei nodded, his eyes still wide with rage, "Yep." He said through gritted teeth, "I know." P'Li smiled as steam began to roil off the wet stone around his feet. P'Li got slightly nervous as the silence stretched out and started getting awkward while the steam cloud just got bigger and bigger. ''Time to change the subject,'' she thought.

"So, what's all this then?" She asked, looking towards the immense slab of stone. Hei grinned immediately, "We're working on a potential site for the new central command. This isn't a very traveled patch of sea, so not many people even know the reef is here, and nobody except us and High Admiral JeongJeong knows what we've been up to here." P'Li looked back at him, "High Admiral JeongJeong commissioned this project?" _Zaheer's not gonna like that..._ she thought.

Hei shook his head and turned to look at Toph's handiwork, "No, but he's coming here in a week to have a look. That's why I wanted Ghazan here. The more we can get done by the time he gets here the better." P'Li nodded, "I see that," she said carefully. Hei made a face, "Zaheer's got Ghazan working on this same thing in the Yin Province doesn't he?" P'Li jumped slightly and Hei knew he was right. The look he shot P'Li was enough to wither the denial in her throat.

"Yeah," she admitted. Hei scowled, "Gre-eat. Now I've got to compete with him on this too. How's his site coming?" P'Li smiled, "He's actually still looking for a good mountain." Hei grinned, "Good, then I've got the drop on him." He looked up at the sky and frowned, "Well he's going to be mighty late, I got word a little over an hour ago that there's a major storm coming in a few days. Should start raining the day after tomorrow. Send him a hawk and tell him to wait to head out. It's two days here from the Yin province, even if he's making good time, and if I recall correctly it takes half a day to get to the shore from those mountains. If he's already under way, he'll make it. If he's still in the mountains, he'll get caught in the middle of it."

"I don't much care if he drowns," Hei continued, "But Ghazan would be kinda hard to replace, and their crew doesn't deserve such a lousy death." P'Li wanted to say something in Zaheer's defense, but she knew Zaheer felt the same way about Hei. Hei sighed, "But enough of that, come meet our banished prince." P'Li raised an eyebrow, "Prince Zuko's here?"

Hei nodded as they set off down the pier towards the main slab, "Yeah, he's an old friend of mine, he'll be joining us on this hunt." P'Li tilted her head to the side and looked at him, "You sure we're allowed to do that?" Hei shrugged, "Well, he is the former prince, he'll be the crown prince if he catches the Avatar, and if we help him back to his former position, well, that can't really hurt us when he's the next Fire Lord now can it?" P'Li ''hmm''ed, "You do have a point there. Are you sure High Admiral JeongJeong will be okay with that though?"

Hei nodded, "He's usually pretty reasonable about this sort of thing, and General Iroh did say they were old friends. Surely he won't mind." P'Li smiled and Hei led on.

 **==That Evening==**

 _He's looking again,_ Ming Hua thought as she shot a glance at the banished prince over her bowl of noodles. Zuko hurriedly averted his gaze as he caught the subtle movement of her eyes. Ming Hua set her bowl in her lap and looked straight at him, "If you have something to say, then say it." Zuko jumped slightly and then settled back, "Oh no it's just, why are you using water-bending to eat with?"

Hei, who had been sitting next to him around the fire scooted away from him so quickly he nearly knocked Iroh off the end of the bench. Toph quickly extended the bench to catch him and Zuko realized he might have touched on a nerve. Ming Hua didn't say anything, just raised one of her water tendrils to her chest with a cold expression and shoved her robe down off her left shoulder, angling said shoulder so Zuko could see it.

It took Zuko a second to realize what he was seeing, "You don't have any arms!" he exclaimed in surprise. Ming Hua put her shoulder back into her robe in an instant and suddenly Zuko found an ice blade at his throat, "You got a problem with it?" "No, no," Zuko replied hurriedly, "It just surprised me!" Ming Hua drew the ice blade at the end of her water arm back a little, allowing him room to talk.

"I've just never seen anyone who could bend without moving their hands before. It's very impressive," Zuko added hurriedly. Ming Hua's water arm snapped back to its usual length and she continued eating with a demure expression before leaning over to Toph and saying in a not very quiet whisper, "I see what you mean, he _is_ prone to putting his foot in his mouth." Zuko blushed furiously and went back to eating, very pointedly not looking at anybody.

Hei settled back into his seat, as Ming Hua sniggered behind a sleeve. Toph grinned, "Wonder what he'll do when he sees P'Li's trick." Zuko looked up, "What?" Ming Hua glared at him and he hurriedly put his head back down and went back to eating, causing Ming Hua to howl with laughter at his sheepish expression, "Ohhh I think I like this one! This is going to be such a fun hunt!"

 **==Two Evenings Later==**

The front edge of the storm had just arrived and Toph had used her earth bending to wall the ships into their moorings so that the storm wouldn't destroy them. Anyone camping outside on the flat slab of stone she had worked so hard to raise would've been washed into the sea by the waves. Now they were all bunkered down in the ships, waiting it out as the wind howled outside, muffled by metal and stone.

Toph had formed earthen tunnels leading from the walls to the hatches so that people could move between the ships safely, which was how P'Li and Ming Hua had wound up on Hei's ship that evening despite the furiously blowing rain, blasts of lightning, roaring wind and crashing thunder. They'd had dinner with Hei and Toph in the officers' mess, a very small room located between Hei and Toph's cabins.

Toph and Ming Hua had retired early to Toph's room and now it was just Hei and P'Li. Hei wasn't great at conversation, and neither was P'Li, so the dinner conversation had died with a most incredible speed after Toph and Ming Hua had left the table. After what felt like an eternity, "So, how are things with you and Zaheer?" P'Li flinched slightly, _Dammit Ming Hua..._ "Oh just fine, um, nothing out of the ordinary, just two friends, don't see each other much, why do you ask?"

Hei raised an eyebrow at her and she realized she had just confirmed whatever suspicions he might've had. P'Li slumped slightly, "How did you know?" She was pretty sure she knew the answer, "Ming Hua told Ghazan, Ghazan told Toph, Toph told me, Ming Hua hoped Ghazan would tell Zaheer, but Toph says Ghazan reported Zaheer not picking up on his hints." P'Li sighed and poked at a piece of roast duck with her chopsticks, "Yeah, he hasn't picked up on mine either."

There was a small period of silence and P'Li took a sip of sake. She sighed and then looked at Hei as he took a drink and looked at a report. _Those two are so much alike,_ she thought. Then a strange idea floated through the alcoholic haze into her mind and as the sake finally shut down the filter between her mind and her mouth, it floated right out, "Do you think he would be jealous if I started going out with you?"

Hei's gaze switched over to meet hers and he held her gaze for a moment. "Yes he would," he replied bluntly. P'Li blinked, then emboldened by his reply, she plowed on, "and if I went out with you and we broke up, do you think he would go out with me to make _you_ jealous?" Hei looked at the ceiling and thought about it for a second, "You want to go out with me, so you can make Zaheer jealous and then pretend to have a fight so we can break up and you can get together with him, ostensibly to make _me_ jealous, when really you wanted him the whole time?"

He turned his gaze back to her, "Is that what you're saying?" P'Li nodded cautiously and Hei smiled coolly before jerking a thumb over his shoulder, "Bed's in there if you're sure you want to do that. I'll be right behind you. I'll warn you now though," he added, "Toph might insist you share." A particularly loud moan escaped Ming Hua and P'Li jumped slightly as it came through the door. "Of course," Hei added dryly, "Toph's quite versatile as such things go."

 **==A Few Moments Later (START OF LEMON)==**

P'Li stretched on Hei's bed, her clothes in a heap on the floor. Hei casually shed his robe as she arched her back, displaying her breasts nicely. P'Li was full head and shoulders taller than Hei, but Hei didn't much mind as he ditched his pants and slithered between her legs. The height disparity between them was such that his crotch was level with her lower stomach as he kissed her gently, then he worked his way down to her breasts, leaving a trail of kisses across her cheek to her jawbone, down her throat and then her collarbone on his way to the top of her breasts.

He kissed one of her nipples, then the other as his shaft rubbed against her moist outer lips parting them perfectly so that every movement brushed against her clit. Her breath came short and quick as he began to suckle her tit, occasionally switching between her breasts to keep her attention as his hands slipped around behind her and caught her firm butt cheeks, which had grown taut as her long legs instinctively wrapped around him. He paused after a moment and looked up at her, "This isn't your first time is it?"

P'Li shook her head, "No Ming Hua's rather voracious." Hei smiled, surged upward to kiss her, "Good," then he returned to her breasts before sliding a little further back still, dragging the length of his shaft across her softness until the head rested against it. Then he started in, slowly ever so slowly until P'Li thought her chest was going to explode with tension. Then suddenly he pulled almost completely out and thrust back in as hard and fast and deep as he could. P'Li's whole body convulsed with pleasure and she held his face buried between her breasts with a gasp of delight as she orgasmed.

"Whoahohoho, that was goood..." she purred as she slumped backwards. Hei flashed her a devilish grin from between her breasts, "Don't tell me you're done already." P'Li looked down at him in surprise, then a smile grew on her face, "Not by a long shot." The grin grew, "good, cause I'm not either." P'Li grinned and then suddenly his head disappeared from between her breasts and reappeared between her legs.

P'Li jumped slightly as the tip of Hei's nose parted her outer lips, and as her hands flew down to his head, the nose traveled upward and suddenly his tongue flickered out and right across her clit. She jumped as though electrocuted as a little gasp escaped her. Hei's tongue began to flicker across her cunt in short quick strokes and after a moment as he punctuated his licking with a quick poke of his tongue on her clit she realized he was writing words.

"Having...fun...yet..." She said slowly as he wrote it, marking spaces by licking her with the full width of his tongue, and then she laughed at his message, "Yes, spirits yes! Keep going!" Hei grinned and then wrote OK with his tongue. Then suddenly she heard a sort of low buzzing noise and suddenly he kissed her between her legs, somehow making his lips vibrate against her. He kept it up for a moment or two and then had to stop, "Sorry, I can't do that for long, it makes my nose tickle." P'Li couldn't help it anymore and burst out laughing.

Hei was suddenly back level with her and kissing her. When they came up for air he smiled, "Sorry, that's about my last trick for that, except perhaps this." Suddenly two of his fingers slipped into her and touched a spot she hadn't even realized was there as his thumb massaged her clit. P'Li's back arched with pleasure yet again as her second orgasm washed over her. She slumped back on the bed, "Holy shit..." she whispered with a smile.

Hei kissed her again, "Will one more be enough for tonight?" She nodded and he smiled and patted her breast, "Would you mind rolling over? I've got another trick." She excitedly rolled over and in just moment they climaxed together as Hei pounded her fiercely from behind and revealed her back to be as sensitive as her breasts and stomach. P'Li slumped forward and rolled over, spreading her legs and letting Hei slide back in.

She bent slightly to kiss him and then laid back as he continued to thrust gently, "Most nights we won't spend the whole night together," He told her quietly, "and I usually won't come inside you. We wouldn't want you getting pregnant before you can get with Zaheer now would we? But tonight is our first night together, we'll leave it to fate just this once."

P'Li gave a guilty little start at the mention of Zaheer and then smiled, she had completely forgotten about that.


End file.
